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Show ; WOMEN AND OLD AGE Elderly Penialo of Today Different Person Per-son From Foremother. "But there are no old ladies nowadays!" nowa-days!" exclaimed a man the other day. "At least." ho added, "not what I call old ladles. When I was a boy I have distinct recollections of periodical vlsltB to certain elderly females, principally relatives, who invariably occupied comfortable com-fortable armchairs in the best place by tho fire or at tho window, and who did nothing but knit or embroider all day long. Surrounded by an admiring family ,nnd garbed in blnclc silk and lnce caps, theso worthy old ladies used to strike terror into my boyish bouI, nnd I regarded regard-ed them with an awe scarcely less than what would bo due to royal ty. "And yet these old ladles could not havo been so very old, either, for tho age limit waB no longer then than it Is now." No, the old lady of a generation Or so ago has vanished and there are but few specimens of her loft. "Whether the disappearance dis-appearance is for good or evil succeeding generations may be ablo to tell. But It used to be that after a woman was mar-'rled mar-'rled aud had children she was virtually virtu-ally laid on the shelf. She was an "old lady" by the time she reached her fiftieth birthday. But what about tho women of todny? The woman of 40 is but just at the prime of lite, whilo the woman whose years number half a hundred would bo deeply Insulted to bo laid upon the shelf, even though she were considered an object of deepest veneration by her family. She does not sottlo down to the chlmnoy corner and cover her sllvory looks with a cap. Sho keeps up her Interest in current events. When her children grow up she joins-a club or devotes her leisure hours to charities. A woman may sometimes overdo the matter and appear too youthful for her years, and here, of course, she makes a bad mistake. ".TuHf. as young as she feels" Is an excellent maxim to live up to, but. a little natural dignity is more 1 graceful. Remember Mme. Recamler, the famous French beauty, who lived to be over OO'years.'nhd retained her magnetic ,hold over, .hor associates until the very' last Phllndelphla Ledger. I |